Death Star Moon

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February 17, 2010

The giant impact crater at lower right makes Mimas, a moon of Saturn, resemble the "death stars" of Star Wars fame. The Cassini spacecraft snapped this image on February 14, from a distance of about 21,500 miles, during its closest approach yet to the icy moon. The crater, known as Herschel, is about 80 miles in diameter, with a central peak about four miles high. The impact that created Herschel was so powerful that it almost shattered the small moon. The small horizontal lines at right are defects in transmission of the image, which has not yet been processed by mission scientists. [NASA/JPL/SSI]